Bodies brought up

15092012

Bring Up The Bodies by Hilary Mantel

By 1535 Thomas Cromwell, the blacksmith’s son, is far from his humble origins. Chief Minister to Henry VIII, his fortunes have risen with those of Anne Boleyn, Henry’s second wife. But Anne has failed to bear a son to secure the Tudor line. At Wolf Hall, Cromwell watches Henry fall in love with plain Jane Seymour. The minister sees what is at stake: not just the king’s pleasure, but the safety of the nation. As he eases a way through the sexual politics of the court, he must negotiate a ‘truth’ that will satisfy Henry and secure his own career. But neither minister nor king will emerge undamaged from the bloody theatre of Anne’s final days.

In Bring up the Bodies, sequel to the Man Booker Prize-winning Wolf Hall, Hilary Mantel explores one of the most mystifying and frightening episodes in English history: the destruction of Anne Boleyn.

Terrific sequel to Wolf Hall this. Cromwell is a fascinating character and his interactions with Henry, the politics around the king and just the sheer madness of the goings on in court as the Boleyn period comes to its messy conclusion make for a fantastic yarn. Mantel’s writing is first rate and the story really rolls along to its inevitable bloody conclusion.